


f 



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S P K Til C H 



JUDGE JOHNSTON, 



LIFE AND CPIARACTER 



'^^. B. HIJLl^ES. 



DELIVERED AT AVONDALE, OHIO 

Jul.v J I. 1S76. 



CINCINNATI: 
ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 

1876. 



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SPEECH OF JUDGE JOHNSTON, AT AVONDALE. 



Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : 

Bayle, ill writiiio; of Mahomet, says he never could de- 
cide whether liis friends or his enemies tohl most hes ahoiit 
him; and so it might too generally be said about candidates 
for otiice. In the case of R. B. Hayes there seems to be 
no reason for perverting the truth. His friends have no 
occasion to exaggerate his merits; and his enemies, unless 
they are ruffians outright, will not assail his character as a 
gentleman, a patriot, and an honest man. 

I have had rare opportunities of knowing him for the 
last twenty-seven years, and I propose on this occasion 
simpl}' to answer a few questions which liave been put to 
me in regard to him, and I do this chiefly for the information 
of a numerous circle of my early friends who have not had 
the pleasure of his personal acquaintance. 

WUO IS HAYES, AND WHAT OF HIM? 

He is a plant of the Ohio soil ; was born in Delaware, 
Ohio, in 1822, and grew up a boy of promise. He was 
educated at Keiiyon College, Ohio, and graduated with 
the first honors of his class in 1842. He studied the 
law in Columbus, Ohio; and afterward, in 1845, took his 
degree in the law school of Harvard University. In 
1845 he was admitted to the bar at Marietta, and com- 
menced the practice of the taw in Fremont, Ohio. In 1849 
he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and practiced his profession 
about nine years, in the meantime declining a nomination 
for Judge of the Common Pleas. From 1858 to 18G1 he 
held the important office of City Solicitor, first by appoint- 
ment, and afterward by election. In 18G1 he enlisted in 
the Union army, and, with the rank of major, took the 



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field, and served till the fall of Richmond and the close of 
the war, havinor been repeatedly wounded in battle and had 
four horses killed under him ; and, in the meanwhile, rose 
by merit from the rank of major to that of maj'ir-^eneral. 
AVhilo he was yet in the iiehl, in 18G4, he was nominated 
for Coiiicre-ss, in the second district, and elected by a large 
majority, notwithstanding his refusal to leave his post to 
canvass the district. At the close of the war he took his 
seat in Congress and served two years, and was again 
elected in lS-,6. In 1807 he was elected Governor of 
Ohio, serveil his lirst term, was re-elected, and served the 
second. He was again elected Governor in 187o, and is 
now in the midst of his third term. He has been in the 
public serviee, with one brief interval, eighteen years, and 
is now, in the fift^'-fourth 3-ear of his age, a candidate for 
the last and highest office in the nation. And here it is 
proper to notice two peculiarities in his history : First, He 
was never known to solicit an office or a prom<»tion, great 
or small, in his life. Second. In all the olUces he has held, 
whether civil or military, he has never failed, not even 
through accident, to perform his duty witii fidelity, wisdom, 
and success. You ane ready to exclaim, 

LICKV MAX ! 

Call it what you will. If this success is the result of 
good luck, be it so ; I want a lucky man for President. If 
it is the result of wisdom, be it so ; I want a wise man for 
President. If it is the result of an overruling Providence, 
be it so ; I want a chosen instrument of Heaven for Presi- 
dent. 

" There's a I>ivinity that shapes our ends, 
Kough Ih'W thrm how we will.'' 

And if, by a chain of unforeseen events, a young man of a 
big heart ami large common-sense, making no pretensions to 
genius, with no ambition for power or ]»lace, is led in safety 
throui;h the trackless maze of human accidents f(^r eighteen 
year.s — four years of the time in the " valley and shadow of 
death *" — all the while perf »rming important pul)lic duties, 



[ H 

without a blunder in his uftUirs or a blot on his name, is 
not this a man of destiny? 

lie had four horses shot Irom unik-r liim in battle. I do 
not refer to this as a proof of his courage — that needs no 
proof — bnt as a proof that the " Divinity that shapes our 
ends " was with him, and *' covered his head in the day of 
battle." Not because he was better than thousands who 
fell on his right hand and on liis left, but that his life was 
preserved for the accomplishment of something mcn-e for 
his country. 

On Braddock's Held, AVashington had two horses shot 
under him; and man}- a time and oft, when I was a cliild, 
liave I heard our good old mothers teach their children, 
from this fact, tliat Washington was a chosen instrument of 
Heaven to achieve our independence. It may be asked, 
whether this man of destiny has any 

MARKED PECULIARITIES. 

I answer, none whatever. Neither his body nor his mind 
runs into rickety proportions. Place him on a platform 
toirether with one hundred distinguished men, and call in 
an able connoisseur, who has neither seen nor heard of any 
one of them, and he will point him out as a model man ; 
neither too large nor too small, nor too tall' nor too short, 
nor too fat nor too lean, nor too old nor too young. A 
man in the prime and vigor of healthful manhood, with 
blood in his veins and marrow in his bones; able to endure 
any labor, either of body or of mind, whicli may devolve 
upon him. 

His face seems made to match his form. No painful, 
care-worn wrinkles, indicative of intirmities or mistortunes, 
to provoke a grudge against nature, or engeudei* sourness 
toward mankind. Nor does he wear a smirking face, as if 
he were a candidate for admiration ; but a line sunny coun- 
tenance, such as men and women respect, and children 
love — such as the good old farmer wore, of wliom the little 
boy said, " That old gent wo n't lick a little feller for gettin' 
on behind him on his sle(L" 

lli-i manner.-, like his countenance, are simple and sincere. 



[G] 

He do n't run to meet you, and call yon " HT>/ very dear 
sir.'' He takes you by the hand, with a cordial kindness 
Avhicli recognizes the universal brotherhood of man, and 
inipressesyou that he is a man who <;ets above nobody, and 
nobody gets above him. 
Let us take a peep into 

niS DOMESTIC LIFE. 

It is a sad tnitii th.' world over, that nearly every dis- 
tinguished literary man has had domestic troubles, result- 
ing in separation trom their wives. Politicians have 
liad but little better luck. A hunger-bitten, seedy scrub 
marries a wile who is oidy too good for him. By and 
by the wheel of fortune turns him up in Congress, or 
some other respectable post. The lift is too high for his 
weak head, lie imagines that he is a great man thrown 
away on an inferior woman, and takes on swells, lie 
sets the world to talking about hi< idle gallantries, and 
forfeits the affections of his own family, and domestic 
liappiness is sacrificed to the shams of artificial life. 

But here is a thoroughly domestic man, whose cheerful 
spirit does not require the dissipations of artificial life — 
whose own home is dearer to him than any other spot on 
earth — whose affections never wandered from the lode-star 
of his life — who loves his wife and children with a tender- 
ness unknown to a weak and vulgar lieart ; and whose wife 
and children, and even his domestic aninuils, love him. 

" ' Tis sweet to hear the wateh-tlog's honest bark 
Bay deep-moutlied welcome as we draw near home; 
'Tis sweet to know there is an eye to mark 
Our coming, and look brighter when we come." 

It is a moral irrandeur of which a nation may he proud 
to nave at its head such an cxami)le of conjugal Ihlelity and 
domestic happiness. 

Allowing -Mr. Hayes to be a good nnm, and a forlunate 
man, the ct)mmon (piestion still reeurs, 



[7] 



IS hi; a I'Auty man? 

Unqncstionabl}', in a certain sense, he is. From the 
lionr the Republican party was formed to resist the repeal 
of the Mitisouri compromise and the encroachments of 
slavery in the new territories, he has stood in the foremost 
rank of the party, battling for the great principle that all 
men are created ecpial, and that all men should be equal 
before the law. 

Like the good Zachary Taylor, he would leave the evil 
aloiie where it was established by law, but would not allow 
it to overspread one acre more of the public domain. In 
this faith he lived till treason raised its baleful head — 
appealed from the ballot to the sword — and commenced 
the work of destruction — till, according to Stephen A. 
Douglass, the nation was divided into two parties, "the 
Patriots and the Traitors." Then he belonged to the 
party of Patriots, and pledged his life in support of his 
laitli ; and so was a party man. 

When the war was over, and the broken fragments of a 
once glorious country were to be collected and again united 
under the old banner, he was among the active laborers in 
the blessed work of reunion, and in such amendments to 
the constitution as Avere deemed necessary to secure to all 
men equtd rights and equal protection under the law. 

Others, who had "run well for a season," became tired 
of private life, and impatient of delay, and turned their 
backs on their old friends. But li. 1>. Hayes stands fast in 
the faith — a party man. 

But when you speak of a partizanship like that of Tam- 
many Hall, which declares that the spoils belong to the 
victors — a doctrine worthy only of pirates — he is no longer 
a -party man. In the platform on which he stands, and in 
his letter of acceptance, he distinctly and emphatically re- 
pudiates this barbarous system ; laying down as a principle 
in civil service reform, that honest and capable men' are to 
be chosen for the civil service, regardless of party names, 
and, when chosen, shall hold their places so long as tlu-y do 
tlirir work fiiillitullv. 



[«] 

Xor is this a new idea with Mr. Kayos. "When it became 
his (hity, under the hiw, to ajtpoint coniinissioners to relieve 
the Siipreiue Court of an overehari;eJ docket, he had before 
him both personal and party tricnds etiough to till all the 
places. But he did that which was both wiser and better 
— made a fair division, appointini^ able and honest men of 
both parties. 

This is magnanimous, to be sure, but 

IS HE A GREAT MAN? 

I answer, no ; not in tlie vulvar sense of the term. But 
what is it to be a j^reat man ? Is it to be a Avondrous orator, 
teaclnng lessons of wisdom to-day, and committing acts of 
folly to-inorrt)W ? Is it to be a ruthless conqueror, deso- 
lating half the globe, and bringing ruin on his own head 
at last? Is it to be an ill-b;ilanced genius, partly strong 
and partly weak, like the feet of Xebuchadnessar's image, 
part of iron and part of clay? I have read of a hero so 
strong that he carried away the gates of a city, posts, bar, 
and all, on his shoulders; and so weak that he revealed the 
secret of his strength to a graceless woman, and then went 
to sleep in her lap, to be shorn of his locks and have his 
eyes gouged out. A fair sample this of heroes, from Xim- 
rod to Louis Napoleon. And what of the Alexanders, the 
Ctesars, tiie Tamerlanes, of Charles XII. of Sweden and 
Napoleon I, of France, these destroyers of nations and 
scourges of human kind ? Call ye these great men ? They 
were ijreat men vulgarly so called. Thev terrified the na- 
tions of the earth, as comets usetl to do, but they shed 
neither light nor hope on the cause ot humanity. From 
such lilazing meteors the republican heart fondly turns 
to the modest but unfading lights of our own Washington 
and Lincoln, 

"Constant as the Northern star, 
Of whose true-fixod anil resting i|uality, 
There is no fellow in th<' lirmanient. " 

Pardon me, I do not nu-au to tonijiare Mr. Hayes, or any 
body else, with AVashington or Lincoln. If he had all the 



Crcat and (j!:ood qnalitu's ol" ln)tli tlioso iiioii toi^'otlior, lie 
never liad the opportunity to ht; their e(pniL To he the 
cliosen instrnment of Heaven in winniui; and c-^tahlishing 
the iVeedoni and independence of four millions oi'i»re^.scd 
colonists, and erecting on the ruins of despotism a great 
and free republic, was an opportunity which could happen 
only to one man in four millions, and l)Ut once in a thou- 
sand years. To be the instrument in saving from ruin the 
structure which "Washington and his compeers liad built, 
and striking the fetters from four million shives, was an 
opi'ortunity wliich could only happen to one man in forty- 
two millions, and but once in a hundred years. 

According to my poor notion of greatness, in a republic, 
recogni/ing the principle that all men are created equal, 
the man who in trying times performs with wisdom, tidcl- 
ity, and success, every duty, great and small, to whicli the 
providence of God has c:ille<l him, is a great man. If I am 
right in this, then Mr. Hayes is a great man now, but you 
can make him greater. If you make him President, which 
I believe you will, and, following the uniform bent of his 
character,' he discharges the duties of the future as well aa 
be has discharged the duties of the past, his title will be 
complete; and who can doubt of this, cousidering his char- 
acter as 

A MAX OF PURPOSE. 

" No man having put his hand to the plow, and looking 
back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Xor is he lit for any 
oth( r kingdom. That man alone is fit to rule, who when 
l)e sees the line of duty lietore him, pursues it — not with 
headhmg zeal to-day, lukcwarmness to-morrow, coldness 
the day after; but with steady and unfaltering step to the 
end. If I was in search of an illustration, I would lind it 
in the military life of K. U. Hayes. 

This man had no natural bent to military life — no fond- 
ness for bloodshed. No Quaker ever loved peace and har- 
mony more than he. But when the alternative of live or 
die, sink or swim, was presented to the country in which 
he was born and reared — when the glorious fabric of re- 
pultlican freedom reared l)y our fathers was assailed by 



[10] 

traitor hands, and menaced to be laid in ruin, and the liope 
of the world bhisted ; when this broad hmd, mapped out 
]jy the fini^er of God as thesite of freedom's empire, was 
about to be torn asunder, and a new empire erected on its 
ruins, with shivery for its corner-stone ; when Eni;lish aris- 
tocracy proehiinied the American Republic a failure; then 
tbis unpretendiuf^ young num buckled on his sword and 
nuirciied to tbe field, askins: no quct^tions what was to befal 
/j/m, if his country could be saved: and having "put bis 
liand to tlie plow,"' never for a moment looked back, till 
lie saw the capitol of treason fall, and the traitor chief an 
exile, hiding in female attire from the vengeance of his 
country. 

While he was yet in the tiehl, lie was nomir.ated for Con- 
•grcps in the Second District, and urged by a friend to come 
home and canvass tbe district. His rtjily was short hut 
cbaracteristic : " Any man that woubl leave his post in the 
field to canvass for Congress ouglit to be scaljtcd." Atter 
he was elected I wrote to him from "Wasbingtoii tbat I had 
a nice suit of rooms at his serviee, and asked him when he 
would come to Wasbington. His reply was tbat he never 
would come to Wasbington miless be could come tbrough 
Kichmon(L And he did come through Ricbmond — came, 
not as a Roman conqueror claiming a triumpb. but as :i re- 
I)ublican citizen, wlio bad tini>bod his work in the field, 
and Avas ready to enter on his woik in tbe council ot' the 
nation. 

I relate these anecih)tes not to ]>rove the patriotism of 
Mr. Hayes — that needs no proof — but to illustrate bis 
character as a man of purpose — a man of stability. 

I have known a man of great altility, in some respects, 
to di'vofe a ([iiartcr of a ct'iitin-y to deiu)unciiig slavery and 
slaveholders, and wlien the legitimate eonserpienee of bis 
logic come to tbe tug of war, to give the contest u\) — to 
he willing Un- the sake of peace to deliver <ner tbe better 
lialf of the continent to tbe dominion of slavery, antl con- 
sign four million human beiuL's and their ]>o>tcrity to tbe 
fetter and tlie lash iorever. Xot so R. T.. llaycs. Tbe 
loixic of bis toni:uc»aiid the logic of bis swoid vpoke tbe 



1 11 ] 

same lanc:na<TO. " The TTnidn inust and shall he preserved." 
Tin' wicked rehi'llion niust bo abandoned or the cause of it 
rooted out forever. .Vnd it is footed out, tliatd<s ijo to God, 
and thanks to the instruments under God who ucconi- 
plisliod tlie work. 

But has he the ability to defend himself and Ins doc- 
trines ? In short, 

IS HE AN ORATOR? 

IIow much oratory does it require to make a good Presi- 
dent? Judging by what I liave read of others, and what 
I know of Hayes, he is a better public speaker than George 
AVashington, Thomas Jetterson, or Andrew Jackson — all 
of wiioni seem to have held their own. True, be is not a 
metaphysical gladiator, like Calhoun ; he lacks tlie graceful 
elocpience of Clay, the massive logic of AVebster, and the 
moving pathos of Corwin. He can not " roar you " like 
Governor AJlen, nor "tear a passion to tatters'*' like Gen. 
Carey. But he always understands his subject, and speaks 
with logical clearness and classic accuracy. When you go 
to hear him, you are not traus['0rted by his eloquence to the 
regions of imagination ; but you understand him, and when 
you go home, you can remember and repeat every point of 
his argument; and I believe he understands the [irinciples 
of our federal government as well, can state them as clearly, 
and defend them as ably as any man of my acquaintance, 
in or out of public life. All the shining qualities of the 
orator belong to the department of genius, and may, and 
otten do, exist without wisdom. But 

IS HAYES AN ABLE LAWYER ? 

lie will not compare with Marshall, or Piid-cney, or Ham- 
ilton, or Burr, or Webster, or Curtis, or Ewing. But he is a 
sound and able lawyer; at least I always thought so. About 
twenty-two years ago I chose him from amongst the able 
bar of Cincinnati to manage a cause of my own, in which 
I felt some interest ; and about the same time tlie l)ar of 
Cincinnati recommended him to Governor Chase to till a 
vacancy on the bench of the Common Pleas. 

Of his sharpness as a special pleader I know nothing. 



[ 1^] 

Special pleas are l)iit the liaiulinaitls of justice in tlie outer 
court ; and I should hardly tliiiik he wasted much time iu 
Hirtatioiis with them. Xnr do I suppose he )-emembers as 
many decided cases hy their titles as our late dud<;e Storer, 
or Mr. Justice Swayne. But he knows tlie great lunda- 
mental maxims of the hiw, an<l the great jirinciples of 
moral ethics which underlie all hiw, as well as the best of 
them. 

AVe have never had for President what the world esteems 
a great lawyer. It is even doubtful whether tiie hair-split- 
ting distinctions of the special pleader, the unseemly wrang- 
lings of the nisi prius court, and the blind devotion to musty 
precedents, do not dwarf rather than enlarge the under- 
standing ; iind whether the simjile rules of reciprocal jus- 
tice, known as the law of nations, are not better understood 
by the candid student of history than by the great lawyer, 
more es[K'cially the great railroad lavyijcr. 

But what is to be said of the general 

SCIIOLARSUIP OF MR. HAYES? 

Scholarshi[t is an accomplishment rather than a qualiti- 
cation for the office of President. That of George Wash- 
ington consisted of a ]>laiu, common English education, with 
a knowledge of surveying. That of Abraham Lincoln was 
precisely the same. Yet Lord Brougham does not liesitate 
to say that "Washington's education was ijetter adajited to 
the duties he had to perform than the learning acrpiired at 
the universities. And the same observatit>n has been made 
in regard to LincoUi by some of the lirst s<.-holars in Europe 
and America. 

Ill addition to large stores of comnu)n sense, and common 
inroniiation, and conniion hom-sty, which are the chief 
t|ualilications, it is desirable that the chief magistrate of 
the nation shouM write and sjicak the national hmguage 
with jiropricty ; and nobody who knows him tloubts the 
ability of Mr. Jlayes to do this. \\\\{ J make no apology 
for his lack of scholarship. At twenty years of age he took 
his degree of Baciielor «)f Arts at Kenyon College, with 
the lir>t honors of his class. Shortly after, ho took his de- 



[13] 

gree of Bachelor of Law at Harvard University, ami Im- lias 
been a diligent student ever since, except when the ardu- 
ons duties of the cani[) ahsorhed his tiine. Of the fifteen 
Presidents who have gone before, Thomas Jefferson and 
John Qniney A(hinis only have snrpassed him in scholar- 
ship ; while neither "Washington nor Jackson nor Lincoln 
were his eqnals in this respect. But 

HAS HE EXPERIENCE ? 

Something more than liis antagonist, wlio never served 
the United States in any capacity, civil or military ; but 
whose experience has been limited to the politics of Tam- 
many Hall and railroad law3-ering, neither of wliich tend 
to increase one's stock either of wisdom or honesty. But 
history is somewhat sarcastic as to the value of experience. 
In looking back, we find the longest experience and the 
worst President uniting in the person of James Buchanan ; 
and the shortest experience and the best President (AVash- 
ington excepted) uniting in Al)raham Lincoln. 

What I have said under the head of scholarship, I repeat 
under the head of experience. A large store of common 
sense, and common information, and common honesty, ap- 
plied with patriotic solicitude to the wants of the country, 
are worth more than whole cyclopedias of learidng and 
ages of experience. But is it true that 

GOVERNOR HAYES IS RICH ? 

So I am told, and if it is so, I am glad to learn it, but far 
gladder to know that he came l)y it honestly. That he did 
not acquire it by gambling in the gold room at New York, 
Eor by trading in crooked whisky, nor l>.y absorbin<; rail- 
road subsidies, nor b}' receiving labulous donations in the 
name of fees, nor by jobbing in the stocks of decayed cor- 
porations ; nor by watering railroad stocks, nor by credit 
mobilier. 

A French writersays there are but three ways of acrpiir- 
ing a fortune: By inheritance from an ancestor; by per- 
severing incbistry ; or by stealing. By the first and second 
of these motles .\L-. llaye>' has acquired his fortune, be the 



pamc more or less, and left the third mode of acquisition 
to whom it may concern. 

In a great and rich and growing countr}', like ours, it is 
appropriate at least tliat the cliief magistrate should have 
the means of sustaining his position before the world with- 
out disreputable shifts, or dependence on the liberality of 
his friends; ami Avhen we consider the ruinous extrava- 
gance into which the ladies of the capitol plunge them- 
selves and drag their husbands, a reasonable degree of 
independence in the executive mansion may have its re- 
fornuitory influence. If the excellent lady who [iresides 
over the ton should rebuke this folly by attiring herself in 
Christian simplieity, it can not be ascribed to povert}' ; and 
if she shouitl add richness to simjilicity, we shall know that 
it is paid for. But I must close. 

I have been a great idolator in ray day. AVhcu I was 
young I had a great admiration of great men, at a great 
distance; but on near approach they dwindle down to the 
common stature of my neighbors ; some of them lower. 
Some vice, some folly, or some weakness, to mar the per- 
fection of the god, and teach me that they were mere men ; 
some of them bad men. Give me a man without rickety 
]ir<)porti<^>ns, a sound mind in a sound body — a man whom 
I know to be honest and believe t() be cajiable. 

Some days since a gentleman, not himself above medioc- 
rity, asked me it All-. Hayes was not a mediocre man. "Well, 
we shall not disunite about words. I have weighed in iho 
balanee of history the Theocrat, the Autocrat, the Aristo- 
crat, the ])emo<'i'at, and the Medioerat, and of all these the 
Mediocrat suits me best, lie is the man who represents most 
nearly the comnkon sense, the common lionesty, the com- 
mon wants, the common wealth, and the common prosperity 
of our common i-ountry. And without admitting his infe- 
riority to the great raili'oad lawyer and railroad siiecuiattir, 
on the other side, Kutherrord 15. Hayes fills the bill. 

T shall next sp.'ak of the platt'orins. but not this eveniui^. 



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